Saudi police say Barbie dolls are a "Jewish toy" and a threat to morality

[Japher]

I'd invest heavily in horizontal drilling in Iraq

[Whaleboy]

We need to find ways to decrease our dependence upon oil, especially foreign oil, and it is clear Bush will not do this

And I'm agreeing with you??!?!? . Ah well...

Oil sucks, at the moment, our dependence means we are like a bus driving faster and faster towards an enormous hole in the ground. Needless to say, its not politically prudent to start instigating the required changes, after all, it might lose the election. Simple minded men in power, with simple minded policies to appeal to the simple minded voters . We truly are doomed.

Democracy: Ok, democracy is good to a point but lets be honest, right now it sucks!

[GePap]

For over 40 years saudi Arabia was a linchpin of the US position in the Arab world, and after the Shah went bye, a lynchpin of the Us position in the Gulf and Central asia (along with the Paks). During that time they became the largest purchasers of US military equipment and have immense links with the enertgy industry in the uS: anyone who thinks that such a relation just falls apart, even after something like 9/11 (which unlike PH could not directly be blamed on any state), is kidding themselves.

As for breaking SA up, it has been a state for over 60 years, and the majority of saudis now think of themselves as Saudis, even if they have clan affiliations: breaking up a self-created state (or at least, created by the House of saud without outside help) won't really happen.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Oerdin
OK, a new question. If you were in a position of authority how would you deal with the Saduis?

As Slowwhand put it for Iraq:

Nuke the hell out of their area, until it glows.

Then nuke the area again, for glowing.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by elijah


And I'm agreeing with you??!?!? . Ah well...

Oil sucks, at the moment, our dependence means we are like a bus driving faster and faster towards an enormous hole in the ground. Needless to say, its not politically prudent to start instigating the required changes, after all, it might lose the election. Simple minded men in power, with simple minded policies to appeal to the simple minded voters . We truly are doomed.

Democracy: Ok, democracy is good to a point but lets be honest, right now it sucks!

Our dependence on oil is economic. Oil is relatively cheap, and we have a huge amount of existing installation and technology base for oil combustion and for raw material use.

Despite the low fuel cost, there is already a lot of private incentive for combustion efficiency, primarily in aircraft and marine applications, where range, fuel capacity and cargo capacity tradeoffs encourage a lot of efficiency development. Those applications spill over into industrial engines and power production as well.

"Reducing dependency" is also a bit simplistic, since we get so many uses out of crude oil, (synthetic fabrics and polymers, chemical, fertilizer, as well as fuels) that reduction of "dependency" in one segment is pretty meaningless, because the remaining market segments are still dependent on other constitutents of different grades of crude.

Why do we use asphalt? Aside from all it's useful properties, the raw material is essentially waste left over after you fraction off heavy or intermediate crude into it's constituents. The same sort of process applies across the board - from one point of view, the particular constituents of crude oil you need for whatever you make is essentially waste material left over from other oil uses.

Transitioning to a post-oil based economy, or even one with a sharply reduced oil comsumption, is not something government can just mandate, and it's not something that can be accomplished without some economically very painful transition. You're talking trillions of dollars.

[The Templar]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Transitioning to a post-oil based economy, or even one with a sharply reduced oil comsumption, is not something government can just mandate, and it's not something that can be accomplished without some economically very painful transition. You're talking trillions of dollars.

Which all means we must start that transition now. That way the pain can be mitigated and the costs of transition spread out.

Oil will run out soon. And at that point we will have a post-oil economy, expensive or not.

[GePap]

Soon?

Since when is at least one century soon?

[realpolitic]

We need solar and wind power.

We have the technology, and some of the cost of fossil fuels is keeping a strong military so those Bozos don't do something destructive with their oil money.

According to Scientific American, we have just about reached our peak oil production.
Mtg, substitutes can be found, we can use concrete for our streets, compost and dung for our farms, and don't underestimate our resourcefulness.

[pchang]

GMOs

We need to develop GMO crops to produce variable length hydrocarbons we can harvest. Then, we'll be able to grow what we need. Turning corn into alcohol is but the 1st step. The US produces more food than we need. This excess capacity could be converted to growing the hydrocarbons we need. Too bad for countries that are net importers of food, though.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Hmm, I suppose the Yemenis are cooperating and they are handy capped by not having control over large sections of their country. Still we should be helping them to gain control and enforce law and order over their tribal areas. Especially if they will agree to stop teaching the facist ideology or at least radically change it so it is n o longer facist.

To do that, we would have to kill most of the tribmans. I don't think the world would go for that at this time. (Iraq)

[Dinner]

True. I don't see a way out of that either.

[optimus2861]

Originally posted by realpolitic
According to Scientific American, we have just about reached our peak oil production.

Boy, reading estimates like that just make me want to drink. Our economies are so oil-dependent, that once we hit that crest (and even if the estimates are off, chances are it'll be, if not in our lifetimes, then in our childrens' or grandchildrens' at the latest), things are going to start to get very painful, very quickly as crude costs rise and take the rest of the economy, and by extension, our way of life, on a roller-coaster. Way too big a problem for me to wrestle with, hence the desire to just drink.

Bleah. That's way too heavy a thought to be having on a (admittedly not exciting) Saturday night .

[Mr. President]

Originally posted by Oerdin
OK, a new question. If you were in a position of authority how would you deal with the Saduis?

Invest in alternative energy. The best way to hurt those scumbags in the long term is to gradually chip away at the basis of their economy. The less we're dependent on oil, the less comfortable they are.

Then when they still need food and don't have anything of value to sell, put a 2,000% markup on grain shipments to them.

(I have some other ideas too, but they all involve things prohibited by the United Nations Charter.)

[Mordoch]

Re: GMOs

Originally posted by pchang
We need to develop GMO crops to produce variable length hydrocarbons we can harvest. Then, we'll be able to grow what we need. Turning corn into alcohol is but the 1st step. The US produces more food than we need. This excess capacity could be converted to growing the hydrocarbons we need. Too bad for countries that are net importers of food, though.

If you're going to go this general route, you should take a look at Thermal Depolymerization.

If the process works as well as its creators claim, not only would most toxic waste problems become history, so would imported oil. Just converting all the U.S. agricultural waste into oil and gas would yield the energy equivalent of 4 billion barrels of oil annually. In 2001 the United States imported 4.2 billion barrels of oil.

If this technology enters widespread use, the rest of the world can tell the Saudis to keep their oil and f*ck off.